The 18 drivers' names have finally been announced for the inaugural season of the all-women championship.
After four days of on-track action, during which the 28 drivers vying for a place on the W Series grid completed 3,000 laps of the Circuito de Almeria, the final line-up has been announced. Eighteen women representing 13 nationalities will be making history by racing in the first ever all-female single-seater racing series; four more have been nominated as reserves. By Wednesday morning W Series Racing Director, Dave Ryan, was confident he had seen enough to rubber-stamp the first 12 drivers to go through to race, which meant that W Series CEO, Catherine Bond Muir, could communicate the good news to them. That allowed Dave to allocate extra time on the 4.2km track to the remaining drivers so that they could show improvements to their handling of the W Series Tatuus F-318 Formula 3 car. Dave was then able to make the final selection, which was announced to the drivers by David Coulthard, W Series Advisory Board Chairman. Now the cars will be taken back to the Hitech GP base at Silverstone in the UK and be prepared for the forthcoming test at the Lausitzring, Germany, on the 14th, 15th and 16th April.
The following 18 successful drivers will race in W Series:
Jamie Chadwick, UK Sabre Cook, USA Marta Garcia, Spain Megan Gilkes, Canada Esmee Hawkey, UK Jessica Hawkins, UK Shea Holbrook, USA Emma Kimilainen, Finland Miki Koyama, Japan Sarah Moore, UK Tasmin Pepper, South Africa Vicky Piria, Italy Alice Powell, UK Gosia Rdest, Poland Naomi Schiff, Belgium Beitske Visser, Netherlands Fabienne Wohlwend, Liechtenstein Caitlin Wood, Australia These are the four reserves for W Series: Sarah Bovy, Belgium Vivien Keszthelyi, Hungary Stephane Kox, Netherlands Francesca Linossi, Italy
David Coulthard, W Series Advisory Board Chairman said:
“This represents today one big step closer to them realising that dream, and I think everyone at W Series can be proud of their contribution to putting these racers on track, who just happen to be women.”